Looking at Garruk

Patrick "Trick" Jarrett oversees web content and social media for Magic, and acts as the publisher of DailyMTG.com and Magic content on the web. He's an ardent Commander player and lover of the game he's played since Ice Age.

Garruk was first introduced to us in Lorwyn, along with the other four original Planeswalker cards. Since that time, we've followed him across several planes and adventures, including a double-faced iteration from Innistrad.

As revealed last week, he's in Magic 2014—Core Set in his latest iteration: Garruk, Caller of Beasts. For this version, we reached out to Karl Kopinski with the following art description.

Color: Green-aligned planeswalker
Location: Dense woods
Action: This is the planeswalker Garruk Wildspeaker (see ref). He's stepping out from the dense woods, emerging from the wild. In the shadows and foliage all around him are fierce forest beasts of various kinds: giant boars, horned bearlike creatures, and other monsters that we can only see by their predatory eyes. Garruk is a master hunter, but also able to commune with animals -- they have his back.
Focus: Garruk Wildspeaker
Mood: Strong. Never civilized. Connected to the ferocity of the wild.

The first sketches from Mr. Kopinski proposed a few different postures for Garruk.

But that art is, as many of you know, not all that Karl Kopinski submitted. There is more that gets cropped out for the card frame. In the above card, Garruk has a beast visible next to him. But, when zoomed out and shown the full art submitted, we find he has even more beasts that have answered his call.